Bowling Green tennis players Julia Barnett and Elizabeth “Libby” Barnett. (J. Patrick Eaken/Sentinel-Tribune)
PERRYSBURG — Bowling Green’s Barnett sisters will be the first to say it helps when you have a sparring partner ready to give you a workout just about anytime you are ready.
BG senior Elizabeth “Libby” Barnett and sophomore Julia Barnett won Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division tennis championships in first and second singles Wednesday at Perrysburg Tennis Center. They also led the Bobcats to the program’s first ever league title in girls tennis.
The two hit the court for ground strokes every chance they get, but rarely play serious matches against each other recreationally.
“We play every week with each other,” Libby said. “We just go out and hit, so I’m always hitting with her, so I have a designated hitting partner. We don’t do matches against each other, but we do practice every week together.
“We’ll play a little bit, but we have a better relationship when we don’t play against each other. We just practice together,” Libby added.
Julia added, “I love playing with her. She’s so fun and we always laugh with each other and its amazing. I’m going to really miss not have her with us on the team next year.
“She’s really who I look up to in everything. When I was little, I was like, ‘I want to be like Libby because she is just so awesome. She’s so accomplished, both on the court and off the court.’”
For Libby, it’s taking her all four years for her to get to this point.
“Libby is a captain and been a leader for four years,” BG coach Andy Drumm said. “She’s gone through a lot — gone through three different coaches. She’s learned a lot and she’s always been a leader. When I asked her to be a captain this year, it was very natural for her.”
To reach the NLL championship, Libby, the top seed, defeated Clay’s Remi Gargas in a tough semifinal, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, then took down Napoleon’s Gracie Butler, 6-1, 6-2, in the final.
“I played a very solid match and felt very good about my game today (championship),” Libby said. “I’ve been figuring some things out and I’m really proud of myself.”
In the first two games against Butler, Libby was down 40-love, but came back to win both. She had to do that three times to get the win.
“She’s very persistent in the way she plays and likes to mix the ball around, will hit topspin, will hit slice and just keeps fighting,” Drumm said.
“Our program is about fighters — they like to fight hard and they like to try to win. So, if they are down love-40, it doesn’t matter, they’ll just keep trying to come back.”
Libby said once down, she had to pull herself together to win five straight points, or in one game that still resulted in multiple deuces, she had to come back again and again.
“You sort of have to get in the mindset that you are OK. You know how to play tennis,” Libby said. “You know exactly what you need to do to get points, so do it.
“It just means getting things back to the service line and hitting nice and deep shots, and staying in it for longer than your opponent does, and taking advantage of the opportunities that your opponent will give you.”
Libby also took advantage of passing shots, knowing what Butler’s strengths and weaknesses were.
“As soon as I sort of analyze what her strengths were and what her weaker shots were, because every player is different, so when you go into a match, you have to reset and you have to figure out what this player does well and what they don’t do as well on so I can capitalize on it,” Libby said.
“So, I found that if I brought her up to the net, I could get past her serve and get the passing shot afterwards. Move her out and then hit one that she couldn’t get to. You sort of have to figure it out as the match goes on, and I think I did in this match.”
She also took advantage of Butler’s second serve, which lacked pace. Libby knows what that is like, trying too hard to keep from double faulting, only to have your opponent tee off on your serve and hit a winner.
“Second serves are way much harder than they look,” Libby said. “There is so much pressure on them, so I’ve been there with that second serve and I’ ve had to work really hard on my second serve, actually, to get that the way I need it to be.”
Julia, the top seed in second singles, routed Napoleon’s Alivia Retcher, 6-0, 6-0, in the semifinals, and then took down Clay’s Grace Fortier, 6-0, 6-2, in the championship.
“I thought it went well,” Julia said. “There is always in these matches a portion where I have a mental battle with myself, whether it is on serves or backhand, forehand — just volleys in general.
“But I always find a way to work through that and get myself out of it and that makes the win so much better.”
Even though they rarely keep score when hitting with each other, there is a chance they could line up against each other in the upcoming sectional tournament. They have met in competition before, but not in a tournament setting.
“I think what we’re going to do is we are going to play, but whatever happens on the court is what happens on the court and then we’ll go out and eat ice cream or something,” Julia said.
“I won’t ever hold anything against her. We are too close for that.”
Libby added, “We’ll be OK. We’ll be there for each other.”
